Incidental VAT Actions: A Case Study on Taxation of One-off Transactions in the Netherlands

• Provinces and municipalities sometimes question whether they should charge VAT for occasional actions that are not normally subject to VAT
• The Court of Appeal in ‘s-Hertogenbosch recently ruled on a case involving a company purchasing nickel in Germany and seeking a VAT refund in the Netherlands
• The Court allowed the VAT refund, contrary to a similar case involving silver bars where the Supreme Court denied the refund
• The Court based its decision on the Kostov ruling from the Court of Justice, which states that incidental activities can be subject to VAT if they are part of economic activities
• The Kostov ruling applies to individuals who are not VAT-registered for their main economic activities
• The Supreme Court ruled that buying silver bars for resale is not an economic activity, possibly considering it as a private investment
• The distinction between private and economic activities is important for VAT purposes, especially for legal entities.

Source: efkbelastingadviseurs.nl

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

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